I really enjoyed this conceptually -- a woman suffers an injury, resulting in amnesia, and she has to determine if her family and friends are responsible -- but the execution left a lot to be desired for me.

The tone is lighthearted, overall, but lacks the dark humor or self-awareness I was hoping for. Additionally the pacing was a huge problem for me. It took me an absolute age to get into this because it moved so slow, and by the time I felt interested enough in the plot, I realized that pretty much all of the characters were falling flat for me, and I ultimately didn't really care what happened to Mia.

A group of friends throws a "remembering party" for their leader Mia who's suffering from memory loss after an unknown attacker tried to kill her. From there we get flashbacks that both fill in the gaps in Mia's memory and help understand the tense friendship dynamics. Mia also recovers certain key memories in the form of films and actors, which I didn't really care about although the author seemed really invested in making it a thing. Overall though, it's a very entertaining read trying to figure out "whodunnit".

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It is a fun, dark thriller, slightly page turner story about a woman called Mia Sinclair, who wakes up from a coma after being attacked but her memory is lost and she cannot remember what happened. Her friends and sister organise a “remembering party”. It does feel like a kind of Cluedo mystery which I usually love.
But I feel like I had a hard time focusing on the story, it was a bit messy in terms of plots and flashbacks, and the characters weren’t likeable. I mean, I definitely wouldn’t want friends like that.
I would still recommend it as it was an overall easy/good read!
Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Friendships Gone Awry..
When Mia awakes from a coma she is unsure as to how on earth she came to be where she is. Her memories are all but shot. Friends gather and group, they want to help her remember. Don’t they? Mia soon realises that the accident that she apparently suffered may well not have been all it had appeared to be and her suspicions rise. Is someone actually trying to get rid of her? As a group, can they solve the mystery that apparently implicates all of them? A twisting and turning tale of friendships gone awry, laced with dark humour and unexpected moments.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I loved Schultz' Little Threats. Unfortunately, this book did not deliver for me. Partially because I had a difficult time focusing but the most important thing is that the characters didn't seem like real people, and I didn't particularly care about the friend circle, who did what to whom, or even the primary mystery, who attacked Mia Sinclair.

The difficult part of trying to remember what happened in a book is when other characters pepper their inner dialogue with flashbacks. It messed up the pacing and flow, I think. I got to about 43% and then skimmed the last 3 chapters or so. Yes - I missed a few major events leading up to the end, but I honestly didn't care. I just wanted to finish so I could move forward with a different book. The pop culture references, at times obscure, would have been more interesting or useful if I was either a millennial (which I'm not) or studied film (I did not). This was a miss for me. How can a book the same length of the novella I read previously feel so long and drawn out?

Book release originally October 17, 2023 but Amazon shows January 1, 2024.

This was a pretty enjoyable novel with a very interesting premise. The main character Mia wakes up from a coma with only a recollection of the people she loves and the movie she loves. Her college friends band together to try to help her recover her memories but there someone seems to have a more sinister motive..
I was at first put off by all of the movie references since I’m not very fond of pop culture references but after the first too chapters it’s not too bad. Decent pacing, enjoyable enough characters, interesting plot.
Overall rating: 3 stars

I did not like this novel. It took me a long time to get through it. The story just didn't feel believable. A group of friends decide to have a "Rembering Party" to help their friend Mia to try and regain her memory. The weekend ends up being a hashing out of how everyone intertwined with each other. I must admit there were some good twists and turns but I didn't like the interactions with the friends. I hated the movie references because I had no clue what they were talking about. I lost interest but I powered because I like to finish what I have started.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC Sleeping with Friends by Emily Schultz.

Received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I really struggled with wanting to like this. A sexy and fast mystery was what I was expecting. The story itself was horribly under developed and the pacing was extremely jarring. I really wish there was something more constructive I could say.

This book was a fun, quick read that kept me guessing all the way through. A woman comes out of a coma after a serious head injury, and her family and college friends try to figure out if it was an accident or attempted murder, while also trying to restore her memories.

While slightly cliche (memories come back at convenient times, the title of the book really holds true), overall this was a really enjoyable little thriller. I did love the gimmick of her memories coming back as movies she's remembering, which was a unique way to have things come up, and made sense as they were film majors.

I would recommend this book if you're interested in a short, twisty thriller that will keep your guessing.

First of all, I want to start thanking NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read and ARC of this book.
This book will be out on October 17, 2023, so definitely keep an eye out if you like thrillers and Mistery.
Ok friends, I really enjoyed this book, it’s a fast paced thriller with a coat of contemporary issues and topics that you can relate to (and a lot whole that will keep you thinking “is this people for real? Who does that? this reference feels far fetched”), there’s also a lot of product placement and although it’s fun to recognize products/brands on books, I kept expecting a hashtag “ad” to appear somewhere.
It's defintiely a page turner, fast-paced and fun, the premise is that we have this group of characters that are friends, and they want to discover who attacked one of them (who happened to lose their memory as a consequence) and one friend decided to throw a remembrance party to help them remember what happened and discover who did it.
I can't promise you that the characters or the plot will stay with you after you finish the book, that wasn't the case for me as there is no strong character development and there’s a lack of “fleshness” in them, they just don’t seem real or even plausible most of the time.
Althought, as I have said I did enjoy the book, it's also true that the story has a lot of "flaws", the plot keeps jumping across different flashbacks and events between the characters and POVs -and I usually love the change when it’s well executed- but it feels messy in this one, stopping for unnecessary descriptions and passing over interesting stuff without a second glance. You get the feeling that the story wanted to be a lot of things or reach out to a million different topics coming out short and it was shooting in all directions without hitting the necessary spots. By the second half, things got interesting as the characters start collecting more clues to solve the case and some things start falling into their places.

🌟🌟🌟💫 (3.5/5)

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Really solid book, I thought it was good.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

Beautiful cover, loved the synopsis and ideas of the book.

But I will be honest, too many characters and I got lost too easily.

This one just really didn't do anything for me. I kept feeling like I'd read it before - or bits of it. It's not that unusual a premise: a group of friends meets up after years of friendship and discovers Secrets Abound among their various relationships. There's nothing wrong with going with a comfortable premise , but you need something to differentiate it and I just never felt like I figured out what that was here.

On top of that, I never connected to any of the characters. They felt like aggregations of pop culture characters from a variety of contexts. This may have been intentional, to keep an Everywoman feel, but it made it very hard to connect to anyone enough to fully engage with the story. This one wasn't a good fit for me

This book would make for a great film of a group of friends with their own shared secrets and hidden agendas which all collide. The premise and characters were all interesting and kept me interested enough but not necessarily invested in them.

It was a very easy read with my favourite genre but I would recommend it more to audiences who are looking for a young adult whodunit as the book is peppered with pop culture references and very gen-z in its writing style. I was hoping for more character development.

"Sleeping With Friends" by Emily Schultz presents a familiar premise of a group of college friends entangled in a web of secrets, lust, and attempted murder. Unfortunately, while the plot holds some intrigue, the execution falls short in several aspects.

One of the major issues with the novel is the lack of depth in character development. Mia, the central figure in the story, fails to capture readers' interest as the object of everyone's obsession. The author fails to provide any substantial insight into what makes Mia so irresistible, leaving readers questioning the authenticity of the character's appeal. Additionally, the other characters come across as one-dimensional stereotypes, reminiscent of a generic teen movie.

The constant barrage of movie references, although stemming from the characters' shared history in a theater class, becomes tiresome and often lacks relevance. Rather than enhancing the story, these references feel forced and contribute to a disjointed reading experience.

Despite these flaws, "Sleeping With Friends" remains an easy read that offers moments of entertainment. The whodunit aspect of the story keeps readers engaged, although it lacks originality and surprises. Fans of light mystery novels and those who enjoy books infused with pop culture references might find some enjoyment in this novel.

Overall, "Sleeping With Friends" falls short of its potential due to shallow character development, excessive movie references, and a predictable plot. While it may provide a quick diversion, it fails to leave a lasting impression.

I finished it so it kept me interested long enough but not really engaged. For me there was too much that was specific for a small group of people and I felt adrift/couldn't connect. I received this as an advance copy from the author via NetGalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.

did not finish it. first chapter was horrible and at first I thought it might be because I haven't read this genre in a while. but the book has expressions like "MeToo'd" (i.e., someone is kicked out of a company for sexual harassment) and alludes to the "waste of sperm" of the 17-year-old kid of one of the characters. it was weird. I hate to be judgemental but these kinds of expressions just take me out of the book and leave me with no interest at all about the plot. also it took me like 15 days to even get halfway through the first chapter.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to read Sleeping With Friends prior to pub date of 17 Oct 2023. I enjoyed the opportunity!

I was drawn to this lock door mystery from the cover and description. I did like the plot line of the book; however, at times, felt a bit lost as the scene jumped from topic to topic without smooth transitions/descriptions. At times, elements of the book felt out of place or thrown in.

I do think the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more, and this could have made me feel more invested in the effort to solve Mia’s accident. I wanted to know a bit more about who Mia was, what drew her friends to her, and more about her decisions that led her to where she was in life.

The last quarter of the book did keep me reading, as more of the clues began to be revealed, and pieces fell into place to solve the mystery. I appreciate the author giving a post-solved mystery glimpse into the lives of Agnes and Mia; however do wish there was a tie-up of Zoey, Ethan, Stephanie, and Cameron’s stories.

Overall, I would give this book 3.5/5 stars, and would be interested in reading the authors other works.

I feel like I've read a lot of similar books this year, the group of college friends either all sleeping with each other or wanting to, and everyone obsessed with one particular girl. Mia is that girl in this story, and I just didn't see the draw. We weren't given any kind of look into what makes everyone so in love with Mia. We don't get a glimpse into any of the characters, besides Agnes. The plot was interesting, though not all that original, but the characters were pretty one-note and read like character stereotypes. Very much a one dimensional Breakfast Club. Which brings me to my second issue, all those movie references. Ugggh I get that they met in a theater class or whatever, but the constant movie references became annoying, and didn't even make any sense some of the time. All in all, Sleeping With Friends is an easy read, and entertaining enough. I recommend it to readers who enjoy whodunit stories, and books with Pop culture/movie references.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the e-ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this book before its release. I really loved this one. I am a huge fan of murder mysteries/whodunnits and Sleeping With Friends had everything I love. The characters were well written and fleshed out. The twist was satisfying. It was quirky at times which I thought was done well. Overall, I would recommend it. Rounding up from 4.5 stars.
#SleepingwithFriends #NetGalley